Articles and Interviews

Youngkin’s Missed Opportunity

January 31, 2023 by David Toscano

(This article appeared in the Roanoke Times, Jan. 29, 2023)

Youngkin’s ambition nixes good jobs and Virginia’s trust

Like many rural sections in our nation, southern and southwest Virginia face severe economic challenges. Higher unemployment and greater poverty than the rest of the state have generated frequent pledges by Virginia governors to invest in the region with “game changing projects” to create new jobs at higher wages. But when Ford Motor Co. came knocking on the Commonwealth’s door with a venture that would do just that, a plan to create 2,500 new jobs and generate $3.5 billion by building a battery plant for electric vehicles in the heart of the region, it was rebuffed by a Governor whose gaze seems increasingly focused on the White House and his chief Republican rival for his party’s nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. In the process, Glenn Youngkin is eschewing a decades-long tradition of bipartisan efforts to create jobs and spur economic growth. And many now wonder if the Commonwealth is creating a new approach that will subject future projects to some ideological litmus test. [Read more…]

State Preemption and the Fracturing of America

January 23, 2023 by David Toscano

Americans justifiably worry about our national divisions, the effective operation of our institutions, and the future of democracy itself. Republican-led states differ dramatically from those run by Democrats, and these differences reveal themselves both in the capitol buildings of our state capitals and in Congress. In the last several decades, a new source of division has also sprouted, one that pits localities against their own state governments. In some instances, conservative rural areas have been the source of these clashes (the clearest example involves “Second Amendment sanctuary jurisdictions,” where local leaders pledge to ignore gun regulations they claim to be “unconstitutional”). Most of these conflicts, however, emanate from democratic-leaning communities, many of which are attempting to chart policy directions different from their ruby red states.

Read the full article on the Harvard Social Impact Review website.

Miyares power grab?
Virginia Joins Effort to Attack Local Prosecutors

September 27, 2022 by David Toscano

Our new attorney general is trying to make a name for himself. Adopting the play of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and attorneys general across the nation, Jason Miyares cultivates the “stop the steal” crowd with his proposal for an “election integrity commission,” and seeks to build a “tough on crime” image by undermining locally elected commonwealth’s attorneys and their “prosecutorial discretion” to charge and punish wrongdoers in their communities. [Read more…]

Bellwether: How Virginia may forecast the nation’s political future
An interview with David Toscano

September 2, 2022 by David Toscano

From the Radio IQ website:

“When Glenn Youngkin was elected governor last year, some people were surprised. Democrats had been winning statewide elections for years, and they had concluded Virginia was a blue state. In fact, Democrat David Toscano – a former mayor of Charlottesville and a delegate for 14 years – knew otherwise.

`It’s hard for the party in power to win the governorship in Virginia and the reason for that is there’s usually a kind of backlash in Virginia in the first election after the presidential, so you had a backlash against Biden occurring,’ he says.

That observation is one of many in Toscano’s new book, Bellwether – a political history of the commonwealth”… (continue on the Radio IQ WVTF website).

Concerned about abortion rights in Virginia?

June 30, 2022 by David Toscano

The culture wars around abortion rights have been rumbling in the Virginia legislature since I first became a Delegate. Below is an excerpt from Bellwether: Virginia’s Political Transformation, 2006-2020 and a link to an article I just posted in Slate:

I distinctly remember my first days as a Delegate, entering the majestic hall of the Virginia House of Delegates for our daily sessions. Consistent with tradition, each meeting began with the raising of our hands and a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. It was a solemn recognition of our support for the constitution and our country. But one day, I began to notice something strange occurring during this morning ritual. Emanating from the Republican side of the aisle as we finished the Pledge was a soft murmur with words not easily identifiable and difficult to assign to any specific individual. This went on for several weeks, and I incorrectly believed that the phrase being uttered was some kind of playful joke, akin to the “play ball” recitation you would hear at the conclusion of the Pledge at a sports event. But this was no joke. Instead, they were adding to the last phrase “with liberty and justice for all” the words “the born and unborn.” The culture wars were alive and well in the Virginia House of Delegates, the longest serving democratic body in the Western world….”

Four States Where the Legal Status of Abortion Is on a Knife’s Edge

The Supreme Court’s undoing of Roe was, in some ways, like watching a car crash in slow motion. You could see the disaster coming but either felt powerless to stop it or simply looked away in hopes it would not occur. Read the full article in Slate.

The change of one seat in the state Senate could make Virginia abortion policies look like Texas or Oklahoma. Elections matter!

David